--- Ashkuff | www.ashkuff.com | How to use anthropology, in business and ADVENTURE!!!!

Yes the media here is known to be very lefty. The reports are extremely one sided. If a settler attacked an arab it will get massive media coverage, when it goes the other way it seems they don't give a **** (dog bites man, man bites dog).

My question for Bullshido: what's that suggest about our understanding of violence, within our own community? Further, how much/little do you know about violence in your own community?

Interesting questions. It would seem to suggest that people have a lack of understanding of their own role in protecting themselves.

I guess it depends on what your definition of community is. If it is my work place: I'm one of the more "violent" people in my office. But then I will need a definition of "violent" because I fight for fun, not out of anger. I'm violent but one of the calmer and more laid back person around. Now if community is the people who I come in contact with on the river when we are kayaking and drinking: the drunk, redneck, river rats, are a very unstable community. Violence is at a constant breaking point. And yet, cops are not involved because everyone polices their own. If community is the neighborhood that I live in: my understanding of violence is only what directly effects me. I think there is a lot going on within a mile of my house that I know nothing about.

In the age of Google, kids with smart phones, and toddlers that can work an Ipad I would find it very hard to believe that one wouldn't even think to "bother with other resources".

I'll assume for a second that the majority of people with access to said resources just wouldn't think to bother; I still think the chance of them stumbling across other sources is extremely high. Hopefully, seeing these possibly different views would get the ball rolling.

So, what exactly would you like to happen? In what ways and what agencies would you like to see advertise statistics? Why?

Good generational points. Yet, even among the most tech savvy of us, what of those who're used to getting their news RSS'd from HuffPost and the like? With all the pre-structured crime stories they recieve, they might (mistakenly?) think they're pretty well informed, and never think to Google FBI crime stats.

As for my desires? Might be cool if the FBI paid their press correspondents more. You know, make sure crime figures make the news more often and more clearly.

--- Ashkuff | www.ashkuff.com | How to use anthropology, in business and ADVENTURE!!!!

Interesting questions. It would seem to suggest that people have a lack of understanding of their own role in protecting themselves.

I guess it depends on what your definition of community is. If it is my work place: I'm one of the more "violent" people in my office. But then I will need a definition of "violent" because I fight for fun, not out of anger. I'm violent but one of the calmer and more laid back person around. Now if community is the people who I come in contact with on the river when we are kayaking and drinking: the drunk, redneck, river rats, are a very unstable community. Violence is at a constant breaking point. And yet, cops are not involved because everyone polices their own. If community is the neighborhood that I live in: my understanding of violence is only what directly effects me. I think there is a lot going on within a mile of my house that I know nothing about.

So, I think a lot of it is relative to other veriables.

Just wanted to say that, as an anthropologist, I totally appreciate your eye for relativism. I suppose, in my context, I'm refering to my "academic community" at University of Florida.

---Ashkuff | www.ashkuff.com | How to use anthropology, in business and ADVENTURE!!!!

Yes the media here is known to be very lefty. The reports are extremely one sided. If a settler attacked an arab it will get massive media coverage, when it goes the other way it seems they don't give a **** (dog bites man, man bites dog).

Wow, seriously? Our media does a lot of "Arabs started some trouble again, and Israel is over reacting again. What's with those guys?!" Very conflict-centric reporting.

---Ashkuff | www.ashkuff.com | How to use anthropology, in business and ADVENTURE!!!!

Re: How little do you know about violence in your own community?

Originally Posted by Ashkuff

Good generational points. Yet, even among the most tech savvy of us, what of those who're used to getting their news RSS'd from HuffPost and the like? With all the pre-structured crime stories they recieve, they might (mistakenly?) think they're pretty well informed, and never think to Google FBI crime stats.

I just don't think that takes the blame off the person. The FBI can run all the ads they want in a clear and concise manner, who's to say somebody on HuffPost will receive it? What if the FBI doesn't advertise on every single source people get their news from?

Just wanted to say that, as an anthropologist, I totally appreciate your eye for relativism. I suppose, in my context, I'm refering to my "academic community" at University of Florida.

---Ashkuff | www.ashkuff.com | How to use anthropology, in business and ADVENTURE!!!!

Oh yeah. I see what you mean. They are some of my favorite types of people because they live in a bubble. And when it explodes, are shocked! Similar people think that the police are supposed to be there to protect them when crime happens. And get pissed off when no one shows up. Like superman flying in to save the day. Where were the cops!!!

I just don't think that takes the blame off the person. The FBI can run all the ads they want in a clear and concise manner, who's to say somebody on HuffPost will receive it? What if the FBI doesn't advertise on every single source people get their news from?

I agree. It doesn't shift blame. Yet, for me, it's not about blame placing. It's about achieving a goal - informing the public - regardless of who's fault current public ignorance is.

I'll use myself as an example. I'm a uni-educated anthropologist, who grew up in a boxing gym and saw a lot of street violence as a kid. I'd say I had an above-average shot at not blindly relying on the media to describe violence to me.

Yet, I was under the misconception that police made at least one, if not several, arrests for every *reported* violent crime. (At least I knew that lots of violence goes unreported.)

So where'd that misconception come from? Maybe too many episodes of Bones and CSI? Maybe lopsided personal experience (b/c I've seen lots of arrests)?" Who knows?

All I know is that, when I Googled "ratio of violent crimes to arrests," it took me around fifteen minutes to find the FBI reports, single out the stats I needed, and derive them into the ratio above.

By internet standards, fifteen minutes is like a century.
There's gotta be a quicker way.

--- Ashkuff | www.ashkuff.com | How to use anthropology, in business and ADVENTURE!!!!

Hmmm. Sounds about right, to me. But I wonder, where'd that description come from? Have you seen it happen, yourself? Or is it a narrative from the news? Just wonderin.

--- Ashkuff | www.ashkuff.com | How to use anthropology, in business and ADVENTURE!!!!

I did have a gun pulled on me by a group of guys once in a scenario similar to the one I described. It was a long time ago..but it was the only time I've ever been threatened directly with a gun, so I remember it well.
My brother in law still goes clubbing, and he was witness to the last incident we had here downtown. It unfolded pretty much as I described.
So it is a bit of a narrative, but not just something out of a news report. I'm generalizing my own experiences and that of other eyewitnesses to incidents in this city.

" If one wants to have a friend one must also want to wage war for him: and to wage war one must be capable of being an enemy." - Fr. Nietzsche 'On The Friend' Thus Spake Zarathustra